Crossing Out
by HoodedSpellcaster
Summary: I don't breathe and my heart doesn't beat, but does that give you the right to kill me? What exactly is the definition of a monster? /Next Gen, Vampire!Louis
1. Chapter 1

This was originally written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition back in July 2015 (Season 3, Round 8 – Next Gen Lovin') and my judge said it could've worked better as a multichapter fic, so I decided to rewrite it. The original version of the story can be found in my QL collection under a name _'Crossing Out of Dreams and Wishes'._

Warning: Rated T for vampires, Vampire!Louis, Hunter!Victoire, passing mentions of other Harry Potter characters, character death, OCs, some blood, Post-War/Next-Gen, slight Louis x OC, and grammar errors.

* * *

 _Crossing Out_

I can perfectly well understand why vampires are hunted. Yes, I know it's not the Dark Ages anymore. Call me a racist if you want but these facts are based on the first hand experiences. So calm your tits.

These leeches, vampires, are hunted because werewolves, as much of a stain of humankind they are, can be more easily controlled. They turn monthly but thanks to the Wolfsbane Potion they can be… tamed. Instead of monsters they become more like domestic housedogs. It's humiliating but more humane than rampaging with a half a brain. Pardon my lack of better expression here. Vampires, on the other hand, can give in to their bloodlust any moment, which makes them twice as dangerous.

But now hear me out and don't get me wrong. I have nothing against vampires.

I love those bloodsucking creatures of night with their razor sharp fangs and rake-like nails and eerily glowing eyes and expanded life spans. They can be triggered by the tiniest drop of blood, turning them into ruthless, raving, killing machines. That's what's been happening these past decades. Vampires went rogue. Damn, I like that expression. There's been more kills made by vampires since the sixties.

The Ministry of Magic became worried that soon the existence of magical world would be exposed to the muggles because of the increased numbers of vampires. Of course there were other creatures that made their way on the Ministry's black list but it was vampires that made those dusty officials to get up from their desks and do something to stop them.

The Beast Hunting Division was made of Aurors willing to hunt dangerous magical creatures so the magical world could remain hidden from the non-magical folk. Most of these vampires had been muggles themselves, and they didn't realize they were being hunted down. They aren't really the most socializing bunch. Sure, they live in groups – nests, to be exact – of six to ten vampires each but that's it.

Every once in a while vampires who before being turned have been witches or wizards appear. They don't have magic, not real kind of magic anyway. Magic needs a living body to flow and surface and vampires are not practically speaking alive so they're kind of useless. Even though they're shunned by the magical folk, just like werewolves, they rarely turn their backs to the wizarding world but when they do – now we got to the main point – they're a threat.

They know they're being hunted so they like to keep a low profile. Form a nest, find a mate, hunt humans or animals but never kill, and move as often they can. But sometimes a vampire can cave in to the bloodlust and get noticed. The whole nest can get wiped out by Aurors. Remember me mentioning how magical-born vampires are a threat? That culminates when a vampire survives an Auror attack. They never forget the scent of who murdered their family. They won't rest until they get their revenge. Blood for blood mentality, but not always.

That's how we get to me. My name's Louis. I'm an abomination, also known as a vampire. Hello.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a simple summer day when Victoire walked in from the front door. She left her shoes at the door and hung her coat on the rack like always. She had closed the door silently but the wind chimes' clinking gave her arrival away.

I was with Dominique in the kitchen. We hadn't expected Victoire to come back just yet. She had been training really hard to become an Auror. That's why she was almost never home at the time. I dangled my feet under the table, eating biscuits straight from the jar, and I squealed her name when she at last came to the kitchen. She grinned at me the way only a big sister could.

Dominique smiled sweetly as always, the pair of dimples appearing on her faintly freckled cheeks. She poured a cup of tea for Victoire. "You're back early, Vicky," she said easily as our sister sat down. "Did Uncle Harry go easy on you?"

"Not a bit. "Victoire smiled back at her. "Teddy's back in town," she said, adding two pieces of sugar in her cup. "But he's all good. Not a scratch."

Dominique let out a relieved sigh. "That's good to hear."

Just because I was just a child didn't mean I was stupid. I already knew Teddy was Victoire's boyfriend, and I liked him a lot at the time. I really did. I knew Teddy hunted everything grown-ups called 'bad things', like monsters and Death Eaters. Victoire wanted to hunt, too, but it was a dangerous career choice for anyone and, more often than people liked to admit, Aurors died during their missions. But becoming an Auror was some sort of family business.

"What was it this time?" Dominique asked with poorly concealed curiosity. "Not a werewolf, I hope."

I snorted at that. Even I knew it couldn't be a werewolf. The moon was thinning already and there was no way our Teddy would ever hunt down a werewolf.

"Nah," Victoire said absentmindedly, "it was a –"

I remember them exchanging their patented 'should we say anything when Louis in the same room?' look. They used it all the time when I was a kid. I had pouted and stared at them until they gave up. I was already ten. I had my right to know these things. As if Dominique was much older.

Victoire cracked a smile, shrugging apologetically at Dominique. Dominique rolled her eyes but she was the one who had asked. My smile couldn't possibly get any wider when Victoire ruffled my hair and said proudly:

"It was a vampire."

At the time I had no idea how Teddy Lupin's – and in the near future my dear sister Victoire's – actions would ever have anything to do with me. I had just been there, listening to them talking about monsters and creatures of the night, unable to realize how there was two sides in every story.

And how their actions would eventually lead to my side of story.


	3. Chapter 3

There were voices, sounds from the outside, and they didn't mean anything good. Someone had managed to break the wards and got into the cottage. The Shell Cottage was under attack. We were locked into my room upstairs, just the two of us, me and Dominique. Victoire was a certified Auror by then, and she was on a mission with Teddy and few other selected Aurors. Father had been in France with Mother the past few months. None of them knew what was going on.

Dominique was casting protective charms all around the room, forming protective walls for us. I watched the thin veil-like ward move over the periwinkle blue walls. The clouds my mother had enchanted have stopped moving. They were still. Too still.

"Don't worry, Louis," Dominique whispered, gripping her wand tightly as she stood at the end of my bed. She wanted to keep me behind herself. She was fresh out of Hogwarts, never been in a real fight. She was afraid. "I'll protect you," she said but her voice was anything but steady.

Sounds got louder. They would break her charms soon. I got up from my bed even though she hissed at me to stay where I was. She wanted me to stay where I was but when had I done anything she wanted.

I walked next to her, moving my free hand onto her shoulder, giving her a reassuring squeeze. She was shaking, and so was I. My wand felt heavier than ever.

"I'll protect you, too."

And they got in. Broke through the charms with powers I still cannot understand. Maybe it was revenge. Or maybe it was love. It doesn't really matter anymore. They were there. The vampires.

And oh, how much had I read and heard and learnt about them. I knew so much about them and yet I froze completely when they attacked. All spells in mind were like they were wiped out. I lost my wand faster than I care to admit. They manhandled me, pinned me against a wall. They did the same to Dominique.

"They are not here!" The shrieks were shrill and pained. "The Aurors aren't here but I can smell them!" The male vampire walked around, kicking everything on his way. "Come on come on come on! Get out of your hiding place!" he snarled in a blinded rage.

The anger needed to be let out. The vampires were getting restless. They could see their prey wasn't here but they weren't willing to just let it go. There had to be some kind of consolation prize for getting this far.

"Kill them. Drain them empty." The male vampire's tone was final, but devastated. "I don't care."

Those words sparked something in me and I struggled to get to Dominique. I felt sharp fangs tearing my flesh, mauling me. Everything was red and black and pain.

"Louis! LOUIS! Please! Please stop!" Dominique's screams reached my ears. She screamed even after words failed her and the sounds she made were only animalistic gurgling.

"No! NO! Leave her alone! No! Dominique!"

After a while I couldn't hear her anymore. I wasn't been able to protect her. I had lost my consciousness because of the blood loss at some point when they were still feeding from me. I had stopped screaming before that. I once read this book. It had actually nothing to do with my situation but I remembered it then.

Pain demands to be felt.


	4. Chapter 4

There's this thing called imprinting. No, not that Twilight crap – I have read those books so my opinion is as good as yours. The idea is kind of the same, though. The newborn vampires are like baby birds, completely dependent of either their maker or any other older vampire who provides them shelter and food. Newborns are followers, completely and utterly smitten by whoever takes care of them because there is no one else for them out there.

My first memory through unconsciousness was being cold and immeasurably thirsty. I was quite disoriented at the time. It was like I had just woken up from a lifelong coma. My throat felt like sandpaper and I just couldn't clench my thirst. I was too tired to panic and too broken to get any consolation from the fact I wasn't dead. I wanted to feel a liquid to run down my throat. I wanted this pain to be over.

I didn't know how long I had been there or how I had gotten there in the first place. But there I was. Hanging from the ceiling of an abandoned warehouse and being driven insane by my thirst, bloodied clothes dried to skin and cold shackles chafing my wrists. I growled, struggling against my restraints. Apparently that's what alerted the vampires of my awakening.

"Hey, kid, it's okay." The tall, dark skinned vampire spoke to me. She walked my way until she was inches away from me and she dared to offer a small, plastic container. "Shush, it's okay. Drink this," she said, raising it near my lips.

I didn't recognize the tangy scent despite its familiarity and out of sheer stubbornness I turned away. My voice was merely a raspy growl when I voiced the question:

"What is it?"

The vampire smiled. "It's blood."

She said it like it was the easiest thing to say, which to her, it probably was. She moved the container again and I turned my head away like a petulant child I was. It was blood. I wasn't going to drink that even though the every cell in my body wanted to have a taste. The scent was heady; it was making my head spin. The second set of teeth pushed through my gums, drawing out blood, but my own blood didn't help my hunger.

"No," I hissed.

"Come on," she coaxed. "You need to drink or you'll just dry out and die. And we don't want that to happen, do we?"

I knew what would happen if I drank that but it wasn't really up to me anymore. So she poured and I drank. I enjoyed it then, how it felt against my tongue and how it rich it tasted. In retrospect I'm not proud of enjoying it. Someone had died so I could be fed but that thought didn't even cross my mind before the container was empty and my secondary teeth had sunk back in.

The damage was already done by then.


	5. Chapter 5

I slowly learned to adapt to the situation, which is a serious understatement. I hated what I had become and it took me ages to accept that I was vampire and that I wasn't going to change back. Ooh and being part of a nest. That didn't really help at all. Being surrounded by vampires and trying not to run away was difficult.

There were about seven vampires in this nest. The vampire who had fed me the first few weeks before I was calm enough to be unchained was called Donna. She wasn't the one who had turned me in the first place but she was the one who took care of me.

Their leader was called Sullivan, and he was the only one I ever heard being called by his last name. He was the mastermind behind the attack to the Shell Cottage and, when I learned that, I wanted to rip him to shreds. In the end I never got a chance to do so. And no matter how much what happened to Dominique pained me, how I still could hear her screaming sometimes, I'm glad I never turned against Sullivan. Apparently he had in the past been a wizard, and I was told Aurors murdered his former nest and his mate. It had broken him. Blood for blood mentality had made him the monster I knew him as. I wasn't going to become like him.

I missed my parents and Victoire more than I can possibly tell but I couldn't just waltz back to my old life like nothing had happened. True, Dad is partially a werewolf and Mom is a quarter Veela, but that's not the same thing as being a full-fledged vampire. With rogue vampires breaking havoc, and Aurors with their counterparts all over Europe trying to stop them from revealing the magical world to muggles, it wouldn't have been rational to come out from hiding.

Well, it was until our nest was found after about two years of moving around England and I, for the first time in my life, saw from the close how the Beast Hunting Division handled things. I had always thought that because they have magic and so some sort of dominance over us, they would try to reason with our kind before… You know.

I don't remember when I had last been so wrong.

I had lost one family and I wasn't willing to lose another. It was a fight or flee situation, and every cell in my body wanted to stay and fight when the Aurors started throwing curses. I wanted to throw myself in the battle, to prevent them from wiping away good people like they were nothing but filth. I was sure I saw a glimpse of Victoire among the Division and the urge to go to her was almost stronger than the will to run away.

It was Donna forced me to run and go to find another nest she knew resided in Portsmouth. Old friends of her, she told me in a hushed whisper. I would love it there.

I didn't meet Donna after that day. I doubt she survived.


	6. Chapter 6

It took days to get to Portsmouth on foot. I couldn't just crab a cab now, could I? No money, no papers, no wand, and absolutely no idea how to find the friends Donna mentioned. I considered checking the abandoned warehouses and the other places where vampires could hide but the fact I was hungry was clouding my brain.

Not to mention my state of mind. Donna had saved me from my own sister. My own sister would have killed in cold blood me amongst my kind. That much I mattered to her anymore. I didn't want to think about Victoire, I needed to find the nest Donna told me about.

How do vampires even recognize each other? We don't sparkle in the sun or flinch away from crosses and garlic. Sure, the most unstable ones can't hold back when they smell blood but I surely wasn't going to cut some innocent muggle in a marketplace just to smoke out a vampire. I don't think that would have worked anyway. I would probably just have revealed myself, I thought bitterly, running my tongue over my secondary teeth. But I needed blood and that was starting to sound like a good idea.

Saint Mary's Hospital hadn't been my first choice of snacking but the thought of getting a nice, full blood bag had been too tempting to ignore when my throat had been practically drier than Sahara all day. And on the plus side, I didn't need to harm anyone to get my refill. I was surprised I didn't get caught. Nowadays there are security cameras everywhere but I saw not one glimpse of nurses or patients or watchmen there. I considered myself lucky.

I sat on a bench not very far away from the hospital into the small hours, feeding myself. I had at least had that much of working brain cells that I had hidden the blood bag inside a paper bag. That made me look like an alcoholic hobo kid, based on the looks the few passer-bys shot at me.

"Oi!" My eyes darted up from my lap and quickly wiped my mouth. The young man with auburn hair and watchman's outfit glowered at me. "Who do you think you are, drinking from a blood bag in public like that?"

In the ID-card that was hanging from his neck was the name of the hospital I had picked up the blood bags from. I got up, keeping my hands where he could see them. My jaw clenched. I could outrun him. I could even–

"And don't you dare to run," the man said, hands on his hips. "I got your scent and I will find you."

"I wasn't going to run," I lied as casually as I could muster at that moment, backing away a few steps when he plopped on the bench. His serious expression was swiftly replaced by a relaxed smile. He patted the bench. I reluctantly sat back down.

"Sure, you were," the man hummed. "It's a basic instinct. I would've done the same."

That's when I first met Uriel. A precious cinnamon roll from very religious parents, one of the friends Nonna had mentioned. He had a job, which was very odd for a vampire, but he was thinking about resigning. He didn't interrupt when I told him what had happened to Sullivan's nest few days earlier.

"So, _just Louis_ ," Uriel starts after taking in all the information I had, "how old are you? You don't talk much about yourself."

"Fifteen," I replied shortly, "bit more than two years as a vampire."

Uriel blinked. "Huh? You look older than that. More… I don't know, mature?"

Of course I did, I reminded myself. I wasn't going to tell Uriel about the Veela genes, though, or Hogwarts, or even my family. Because vampire or not, he was a muggle.

"How old are you then?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Twelve?"

Uriel gasped, feigning shock. "I'm twenty-eight!" he exclaimed. He put a finger on his cheek as if he was pondering something – a habit I didn't yet know I would learn to love – and added, "Well, plus twelve years as a vampire. Born and raised in Bristol. Did you know that back in the 16th century a group of vampires used Bristol Cathedral as their hiding place and–"

And so we talked about other things. History and science and about the nest he was a part of, and which I hopefully would soon be a part of as well. Uriel liked talking about himself, too. Not that it bothered me. He was loud and cheery, unlike the vampires I had met before. He laughed, throwing one hand over my shoulders and messing my hair with the other.

"You know what, Lulu," he said almost affectionately. "I'm gonna keep you."

And you know what, that could have sounded very creepy if anyone else but Uriel had said it.


	7. Chapter 7

Glen, Lynda, Uriel, Gavin, Donnie, Colette, Allison.

They formed a tight group of relatively calm and intelligent vampires who had no intention in leaving Portsmouth. They kept relatively low profile, had jobs and didn't kill.

Their proclaimed leader was Glen, a burly man with thick neck and biceps to spare. He hadn't been a vampire as long as his mate, Lynda, by the time they met but he was smart, so smart it was such a shame that he had been turned into a vampire. He had brains and brawn in the same package. Lynda instead was more ferocious than Glen. She was a tiny woman with squinted eyes and an appetite of a small army. From what I heard from Uriel, they had met in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, back in the sixties. Apparently Lynda had tried to rip Glen's throat open when they met but that's just one version.

Gavin was, for a vampire, very human. He still went to see his grandmother who lived across the city since he was the only family she had left. She was a very old lady and, from what I gathered from Gavin, she couldn't see anymore. She thought that Gavin was in some sort of financial trouble, which was true in a way, and supported him and unknowingly at the same time us, until she passed away. Gavin became more withdrawn after that but Allison used to help him over the worst. She was a very young vampire, being turned less than a year before I joined Glen's nest.

Donnie and Colette had been together almost ten years already when I joined the nest. Colette had a very bubbly personality and in a way she reminded me of my Auntie Ginny. She worked at Saint Mary's Hospital as a nurse, which I found a peculiar choice of profession until I realized she was the one who brought the figurative bread and butter to the table. Donnie instead used to work at a garage but he quit after he became a vampire and got some money from here and there. Apparently he had been just a light snack for whoever had turned him.

Uriel told me that Glen and Lynda never moved from one place to another until people started to notice how their appearances didn't match their ages or how the random attacks on the streets had increased. Thanks to Colette and her job they had been staying at Portsmouth for almost fourteen years and as Gavin was the nest's only local and even he had stopped going to places where he could be recognized, they had kept under the Auror radar.

Not that they knew about such people as Aurors. They were muggles, all muggles. Only Lynda had few times in the past met a witch or a wizard but she didn't like to talk about it. Glen instead claimed he had wrestled with a werewolf and won but that could've as well been a story he made up.

So we stayed there. Uriel and Colette kept their respective jobs and Donnie made a decent living as well. I even got a part-time job in a local bookstore. Everything went fine for almost another two years before everything came crashing down.


	8. Chapter 8

" _Seven teenagers murdered – Police looking for witnesses"_

I let out a silent prayer for them. They were all so young. Based on the description of the crime scene, vampires were behind it. These murders had happened in Brighton. I cursed aloud when I looked at the photograph of the scene and recognized one of the officers in it. The Aurors were in Bristol already, clearly having a lead. Two weeks ago the same happened in Hastings but in a smaller scale and yet I was sure they had checked everything there. And before that–

I closed the paper from two days ago and took out a map instead. No matter how much I liked apps and Google and such things, a map couldn't run out of battery.

I drew lines on it, marking down the safest way to Ilfracombe. We had decided to stop there because Lynda said she knew someone working in a local hospital there. We had left the safety of Portsmouth a month ago when rogue vampires had started to attract the Aurors just few cities away. We haven't stayed for long in a same place after that. Staying was not safe, I knew that, but neither was moving from one place to another.

Glen, Lynda, and Gavin had left yesterday to find us a place to stay in Ilfracombe.

"You follow us in two days time or we come back to get you," had been the last words Glen had said to us. I pushed my hair away from my face and y shoulder let out a menacing crack as I flexed. We would be leaving as soon as Donnie and Colette got back. And Allison, wherever she was.

"You have something on your ass."

"What?" I turned around, dusting my trench coat and glancing at Uriel.

Uriel flashed a toothy grin, wiggling his eyebrows. "You know," he said with a finger on his cheek, "my eyes."

I groaned in exasperation. Of course. "I'm trying to work here."

"Are you denying one of the life's little pleasures from your own mate?" he asked in a mockingly hurt tone, but the grin never left his face. "That's cold even from you, Lulu."

"Feeling okay, Uriel?" I asked when Uriel pecked a small kiss on my cheek. He slicks back his hair and laughs a little. I couldn't even remember when I had started warming up for him but he was best thing that had happened to me in a long, long time.

"That's just how I roll, I'm fine," he said nonchalantly, walking away so I could work in peace. "Ooh, and Donnie and Colette are back with a car. Just so you know."

I rolled my eyes at Uriel's antics. I didn't even want to know where Donnie stole the car from this time. At least he knew how to drive, being a car mechanic that was probably the minimum requirement. Allison could drive as well, but she hadn't been back after she left last morning.

I was getting worried. She should have been back already. I gritted my teeth and folded the map away. We were running out the time here so I needed to make a decision of would we be staying or leaving before Allison comes back.

In the end I watched the blue Toyota Yaris disappearing from my line of sight.


	9. Chapter 9

I heard the screeching of the tires. I sniffed the cold air.

Allison, finally, I sighed in relief when I recognized the faint scent. But when the door of the warehouse was blasted open, the gnawing feeling in my gut returned. I was sure my heart would have stopped if it was possible in my situation when I heard the shrill voice echoing. Why hadn't I smelled her? And more importantly, why _couldn't_ I smell her now? I wanted to shut her voice out. I wanted this to be just a bad dream. She couldn't be here now. She. _Just_. Couldn't.

"Louis William Weas–!"

"I gave up that name a long time ago!" I shouted back at her, moving without a sound away from the table and into the shadows. She had come here alone. I had the upper hand. I had to remind myself of that few times as I tried to will my other set of teeth from revealing themselves. My eyes widened and I covered my nose even though I knew the action was useless. I could still smell the fresh blood. She was truly outstanding; able to hurt herself just to get her target to come closer to her.

But rational thinking wouldn't do me much help when the instincts took over.

I approached her from behind, my tongue running over the sharp teeth. _Just wound her_ , I repeated over and over again. _Wound her, go find Allison, run for your life._ _Don't kill anyone. Never kill. You're not a monster–_

I let out an inhuman shriek when an arrow hit my shoulder. It became hard to concentrate and move in only few seconds. So she was using dead man's blood now. I pulled the arrow out. How ironic that was.

"I wouldn't want to hunt you down–" She pulled down her hood, revealing her blood covered face. I could still smell Allison and I finally found out where the scent was coming from. She was such a sweet girl, innocent girl. Never mean to anyone. I bared my fangs at the blonde in front of me. "–but you brought this onto yourselves," she concludes in a sing-song voice, topped with a menacing smirk.

"Shut your whore-mouth," I snarled even though I didn't want to talk to her like that. My sister I used to look up to was still very beautiful, but years had started to weigh her down and cloud her vision. "We weren't behind those kills, Victoire. Even you should have noticed that."

It felt weird to say her name after such a long time of avoiding it.

" _Of course_ you weren't," Victoire drawled sarcastically. "That's what that car-stealing monster said as well. You are good liars. She even wailed when I threatened her, swearing she had nothing to do with the murders." She swung the silvery machete. "I didn't even need my wand."

This was what had become of my sister who only wanted to protect her family from the evil that's out there. A killing machine, sparing no one on her crusade. She looked at me but there was no pity in her eyes. It was madness and sorrow. Nevertheless, she wouldn't regret killing me.

"Think about Teddy and your kids. You have more than one nowadays," I groaned, rubbing my shoulder. The dead-man's blood was still affecting me but I needed to play time. "Think about your family. I am your brother."

"Don't you dare to play that card!" she shrieked. "You're not my brother! Not since–!"

Not since Dominique died, I added silently. Victoire wiped her face, Allison's blood and tears mixing together and smudging her cheeks. A pang of sadness hit me but it's mixed with anger over my nest mate. True, Victoire loved Dominique but so did I. Dominique didn't deserve what happened to her. Victoire's eyes flashed dangerously.

"You're _not_ my brother," she repeated, changing her machete to a gun and pointing it at me. Apparently I wasn't worthy enough to be killed painlessly with a wand. "Louis died that night, with Dominique," she growled angrily.

"What happened to her wasn't my fault!" I cried out, crawling away from her as she approached me. A silver bullet was the last thing I want to hit me. The Killing Curse would've been a blessing compared to bleeding out.

"Well, _you_ survived that night and _she_ didn't!" Victoire hissed through her gritted teeth. "Now where are the rest of you bloodsuckers?!"

I glared at her. There wasn't much more I could do but I would never betray my nest. "I'll never tell you," I whispered with a self-satisfied smirk.

She grimaced. "Then you leave me no other choice."

I smiled at her petulant expression. It reminded me of the times when we were young, dreaming of the better world for everyone. It seems like that dream will never come true. I closed my eyes, praying Victoire will be quick which I knew she wouldn't be. I could always hope.

The shot was heard but the bullet never hit me. I opened my eyes to see Victoire falling to the ground. I looked around but I couldn't see from where she was shot. I doubted she was dead; she was most likely shot with anesthetic. I didn't plan to stay behind to ask if the shooter was truly on my side, though. The Beast Hunting Division's Aurors had many enemies. I got on wobbly feet, cursing the dead man's blood and exiting the warehouse.

I decided to not take Allison's car to catch up with the others. Her remains were still in there. Victoire hadn't shown her any mercy. I wanted to cry but crying was privilege vampires didn't have. I braced myself.

I had a long way to go.


End file.
